Souq, which means marketplace in Arabic, started in 2005 and now sells over 400,000 products including electronics, clothes and household goods. It claims to have millions of customer visits every day. The deal had been supposed to reach $650 million, which would make the purchase Amazon’s largest since 2014.

E-commerce in the Middle East and North Africa, still a relatively small market, reached $8.2 billion in sales last year and is expected to jump over 230 percent to $27 billion by 2021. The researcher said Souq.com was the leading seller in the region last year, hitting $1 billion in sales.

Souq.com is a leading e-commerce Web site in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). It offers a host of options for buyers and sellers to transact through an online secure environment to purchase just about everything, either from our online retail stores, or through the Marketplace. Offering 8.4 million products, Dubai-based Souq.com is the largest online retailer in the Arab world, operating in English and Arabic. When it launched its ﬁrst White Friday sale, modelled on the Black Friday event in the US and UK, the market was sceptical. According to Ronaldo Mouchawar, the chief executive and founder of Souq.com, daily traffic during the sale was ten times its usual volume, with 1.2-million products sold in just four days.

ABOUT SOUQ.COM

By offering the largest online marketplace for buyers and sellers to interact in the Arab region, Souq.com its furthering its commitment to develop the region’s e- commerce ecosystem and drive innovation and entrepreneurship in the Middle East. Souq.com is offering a convenient, secure and cost effective platform for budding entrepreneurs and small and medium Enterprises (SMEs) to own a shop online versus having a physical presence in a mall.

With a customer-base of over a million who are searching for the best product deals, Souq.com provides an end-to-end e-commerce solution to sellers where they can setup an online store in less than sixty seconds and without any hassles of initial capital investment, legal work and technology/ physical infrastructure. Souq.com provides easy-to use tools to build an online store and manage inventory; giving sellers control to operate their business/ store and gain immediate return on their investment. In addition, sellers benefit from a secured payment mode as well as logistic services to complete an online sale.

Souq.com has increased its presence since its launch in 2005 and now serves over 500,000 active buyers and sellers in the region. Furthermore, with a record figure of over 1.5 million visitors and 25 million page views every month, Souq.com plans to increase its customer base across new markets that include Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

SOUQ.COM IS NOW COLLABRATE WITH AMAZON PRODUCTS

Dubai-based e-commerce giant Souq.com officially announced that millions of Amazon products from the U.S. are now available on its UAE-based platform. The move follows Amazon’s acquisition of Souq.com earlier this year for an estimated $650m. Souq.com said that Amazon Global Store products would be offered to UAE customers on its app and website.

Prices at checkout will include import fee deposits and delivery will take 2-5 business days for priority and six to 10 business days for expedited. In most cases, returns will be available for 30 days. Speaking to a local publication, Ronaldo Mouchawar, the CEO of Souq.com, said the firm is currently focus on the UAE market but has plans to make the store available to customers in the GCC and Egypt. Amazon Global Store will allow customers in the UAE to shop on Souq.com and Amazon simultaneously, in English or in Arabic, and pay for their purchases in local dirhams.